Eichorn and Jones 1952; Darcy 1953. According to the defenders of this view, given a choice one should avoid being a bilingual.
2.3 Code-Switching
Speakers of more than one language e.g., bilinguals are known for their ability to code-switch or mix their languages during communication. This
phenomenon occurs when bilingual substitute a word or phrase from one language with a phrase or word from another language.
Crystal 1987 suggests that code, or language, switching occurs when an individual who is bilingual alternates between two languages during hisher
speech with another bilingual person. A person who is bilingual may be said to be one who is able to communicate, to varying extents, in a second language. This
includes those who make irregular use of a second language, are able to use a second language but have not for some time dormant bilingualism or those who
have considerable skill in a second language Crystal, 1987. Further, Cook 1991 put the extent of code switching in normal conversation amongst bilinguals
into perspective by outlining that code switching consist of 85 single word switches, 10 phrase switches and 6 clause switches.
Haugen 1973:521 says that code-switching is the alternate use of two languages including everything from the introduction of a single, unassimilated
word up to a complete sentence or more into the context of another language. There are a number of possible reason for the switching from one language
to another and these will now be considered, as presented by Crystal 1987.
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a A speaker may not be able to express himherself in one language so switches to the other to compensate for the deficiency.
b Switching commonly occurs when an individual wishes to express solidarity with a particular social group.
c The alteration that occurs when the speaker wishes to convey hisher attitude to the listener. Where monolingual speakers can communicate these attitudes by
means of variation in the level of formality in their speech, bilingual speakers can convey the same by code switching. Crystal 1987 suggests that where
two bilingual speakers are accustomed to conversing in a particular language, switching to the other is bound to create a special effect. These notions
suggest that code-switching may be used as a socio-linguistic tool by bilingual speakers.
2.4 Linguistics Language Components
